Over the next three years, the Atlantic Ballet Theatre will perform for high school students across the country — trying to raise awareness about what abuse is and how to stop it.

Statistics show that women between the ages of 15 and 24 are the most common victims.

Moncton High School student Kelsie Letourneau said she is still thinking about the performance.

"Like it starts out fine, but you can see how it changes and how it progresses, so you just need to be really really careful," Letourneau told CBC News.

Student PJ Bennett said the play left him thinking about a relationship he was in, where he was a victim of physical and verbal abuse.

"After I saw this play and stuff I'm just gonna try and stay away from those kinds of people and really lead myself to someone that is very nice and innocent," Bennett said.

Angela Williams is a guidance counsellor at Moncton High School, who helps students to define healthy relationships.

"I think it's so important that we talk about violence and what violence is and it's not necessarily a fist or a punch but it can be words, gestures so to see it conveyed in a ballet format it was really quite amazing, quite profound."

Ghosts of Violence opens to the New Brunswick public Friday night at the Capitol Theatre in Moncton. It will tour to Whitehorse and Vancouver later this year. It has stops in 2012 in Halifax, Fredericton, Saint John, Charlottetown, Toronto and London, Ont.